After last Thursday’s postponements, there are still 2 vital conference matches left to be played as we are now less than 3 weeks away from the start of the state tournament.
Despite Westview losing some huge pieces with DePauw basketball player Elijah Hales, Josh Hostetler, and Huntington University baseball player Nick Rensberger, the Warriors are still the Warriors.
Westview (15-3, 8-1 NECC) has won 14 of their last 15 games after starting the season 1-2. They’ve scored 60 or more points in 10 of these last 15 games. Defensively, Westview has only allowed 50 or more points 4 times in the last 15 games.
For the Prairie Heights Panthers (14-3, 6-1 NECC), they’ve rebounded from their brief 2-game skid by dominating Fremont on the road 70-24 and winning 57-44 @ DeKalb. I do think the return of Logan Nott via injury has been a factor for their bounce back.
After the Panthers won in the most dramatic way in OT @ Westview, surely it can’t exceed the thrill that game had, right? See, I feel like this is only the beginning as these two could see each other again after Friday night.
Westview leads the all time series 63-9 over Prairie Heights. In Prairie Heights boys basketball history, the only time they’ve ever beaten Westview multiple times in the same season came in 1974-75.
Westview
1. Must contain the Big 3
By now, this is probably the key for every single opponent to have a chance at beating this Prairie Heights team. While the Panthers are a very deep team, they rely pretty heavily on the play of Perkins, Christlieb, and Malone.
Since the NECC Tournament, the Big 3 has averaged a combined 44.8 of the team’s 63.8 points per game in these last 6 games. 3-year starter, Mike Perkins, recently surpassed 1952 LaGrange grad Jim Robbins for 18th on the LaGrange County scoring list. Right now, he’s on pace to not only finish as the program’s 2nd all time leading scorer, but also 2nd in school history.
Elijah Malone has slowed down a bit since his fast start, but he’s still a beast on the boards. He jacked up 19 points and 8 boards in a route of a 57-44 Heights win @ DeKalb. Christlieb had a near double double going 13 points and 9 boards in the win.
2. No second chance opportunities
One of the things that will be a challenge is how Westview rebounds the basketball particularly against this Heights team. Heights averages over 24 boards a game, but they average 5.8 offensive boards a game. In the games that they grab at least 25 boards, they grab 7.5 offensive boards.
Westview has done a great job in rebounding the basketball since the slow start and their speed and athleticism helps to that. Plus, the fact they’re starting to build depth for as crazy as some people find it. Please don’t assume this team is a one man show because that wasn’t the case then and it’s definitely not the case now.
3. Don’t beat yourself
When the Warriors don’t make silly mistakes and turn the ball over often, Westview is an elite team. But, what got them to the slow start was turnovers and making mistakes.
We haven’t been seeing this as often now as they did earlier this season. The only game where I thought they looked a bit sluggish was the West Noble game, and while I give the Chargers credit for competing, Westview missed easy opportunities despite the win.
Turnovers haven’t been a problem so far against Heights in recent memory, but that has to continue if they want to be in the driver’s seat for the conference title.
Prairie Heights
1. Keep Charlie Yoder In Check
Westview is 12-2 when Charlie Yoder scores at least 25 points in a game. They’re also 6-0 when 3 or more players are in double figures. This is much of this case since Charlie Yoder is only 33 points away from reaching 2,000.
In his career, Charlie Yoder has averaged 27.2 points a game in his last 5 games against Prairie Heights. So, it’s important for Prairie Heights to limit his scoring chances. In the first meeting of this season, Heights limited Charlie to 17 points in the NECC tourney semifinals.
Westview has typically been doing a 4-out-1 in motion offense given how strong their backcourt is, even though this is more of a small ball team than in past seasons. However, this is a much deeper team now than they were 2 months ago.
Both teams straight up play a 2-3 zone defense for most of the time, which does make it interesting since they both play a similar style. The only disadvantage is size and that’s because Heights has the big fella.
2. Stay Disciplined
There are two ways that I mean by discipline. The first one is the obvious one and that’s stay out of foul trouble as much as possible. Heights has had 10 games where they’ve committed 12 or more fouls with the most being 20 fouls against Whitko.
There have only been 6 games where at least one of the Big 3 players have 4 fouls in a game. Brandon Christlieb fouled out in the NECC Tourney title game against CN. But, they’ve been disciplined for most of the season, and it’s definitely been that way recently.
The 2nd way of discipline is the Panthers defending the perimeter. Now, don’t get me wrong the numbers don’t lie that it’s been a good year for them defensively. But, against contending teams, it has been a struggle at times. But, in the DeKalb game, they limited the Barons to just 4 4th quarter points despite allowing 6 triples.
In this conference, they, Westview, and CN are the 3 best perimeter offenses in the entire conference, and it’s pretty unanimous outside of maybe Fremont or even Busco depending on how well they play. So, the Panthers have to be very careful against Westview’s
However, this is a rivalry game regardless if it has been a one sided one or not. They’re both in the same County, the same conference, the same sectional, and they’re title contenders. If you thought the Westview game was tense the first time, it’ll be more intense Friday.
3. Win the Physical Battle
Everyone knows that this will be an extremely intense game given that these two are not only County rivals, but these are conference and sectional contenders.
One area to watch is their ability to rebound the basketball. What has kept Heights from being able to beat Westview most of the time is rebounding, and it’ll come down to that.
A lot of this is connected to the points I made in point number 2 and that’s being disciplined. But, that’s what could decide this game is not the talent on the court but the mental toughness being displayed as well.
Westview is 4-2 in games decided by 10 points or less while Heights is 3-3.
Players to watch
Westview
Brady Yoder
In his last 7 games, Brady Yoder is averaging 10.4 points a game, which makes the perimeter game just that much more dangerous despite his height. However, he did not score a point in the first meeting against Heights. So, he’s going to be a really interesting player to watch because there will be a lot of switching going on, and having the depth Westview’s been getting with him, Lyndon Miller, and Luke Miller, it helps out Blake Egli and Drew Litwiller as well.
Prairie Heights
Elijah Malone
This is pretty obvious for me. While Westview has been doing a very good job rebounding the basketball, they don’t face a ton of teams that have the size, strength, and mobility to power through defenses and get to the net. As I’ve stated, we’re talking a player that’s built like a 250-lb linebacker playing against a team that doesn’t really have a true center. Westview hasn’t been getting stops because of that, it’s been through a team commitment to get after it and crash the glass. He had 18 points 6 boards and 2 seats against Westview the first time around this season.
Conclusion: There’s a ton at stake for this game. Prairie Heights has 2 games in hand on Westview and both teams still only have 1 conference loss this season. Prairie Heights still hasn’t won a championship of any kind despite having 2 historic seasons and haven’t won a NECC regular season title since 2013.
If the Panthers win, they have 2 more huge conference games in their makeup game @ Central Noble and a road game @ Lakeland before they wrap it up with their game against the hapless Hamilton Marines. However, if Westview wins, they can clinch at least a share of the conference title on the road against Fremont Feb. 25.
At this point, there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll see a share of the conference tourney title thanks to Busco beating CN and Westview, Prairie Heights beating Busco, and Angola beating Prairie Heights. It’s just a matter of who will be in this at the end of the season.
These two are separated by only 20 miles mainly through highway 20. We know that gym will be filled Friday. If you thought that barn was jam packed against Angola, you better believe that will be the same in that game as well. You better get seats early.
Also I have one final request for this preview, let’s hope Mother Nature doesn’t postpone this game to. I hate making rescheduled game previews because of this..
Around the NorthEast Corner 